Well's bottom proves elusive in search

LINDEN - An FBI team excavating an old well in Linden for the remains of murder victims reported on its third day of work Wednesday that it hit its first challenge - it can't find the well's bottom.

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By The Record

recordnet.com

By The Record

Posted Jan. 10, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jan 10, 2013 at 9:05 AM

By The Record

Posted Jan. 10, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jan 10, 2013 at 9:05 AM

» Social News

LINDEN - An FBI team excavating an old well in Linden for the remains of murder victims reported on its third day of work Wednesday that it hit its first challenge - it can't find the well's bottom.

Work began Monday in an ongoing search for the murder victims of convicted serial killer Wesley Shermantine and his partner in crime, Loren Herzog. The pair grew up in Linden and led a 15-year, methamphetamine-fueled killing spree.

Also Wednesday, the California Department of Justice lab that had been testing a bone fragment found last year in another well to determine if it might be the remains of a kidnapped Hayward girl missing since 1988 said it did not belong to her but to a previously identified victim.

The fragment in question was recovered by the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office last year and was among thousands of bone fragments found.

Remains in the well were identified by the Sheriff's Office as those of Kimberly Billy, 19; JoAnn Hobson, 16; an unidentified woman from the ages of 16 to 18; and a fetus. The lab did not identify to whom the remains belonged other than to say they belonged to a previously identified victim, according to a report on KGO Channel 7.

Sacramento's News 10 reported that Sharon Murch, mother of the missing Michaela Garecht, said the fragment belonged to Billy.

Hobson's mother, Joan Shelley, had criticized the Sheriff's Office's handling of the recovery effort and had suspected the remains she received weren't her daughter's. She had sent the bones for independent testing, and Eric Bartelink, director of the Human Identification Laboratory at California State University, Chico, conducted a DNA analysis.

Bartelink claims in his report that "significant commingling" of the skeletal remains occurred due to the use of earth-moving equipment during the excavation. The report further alleges there could be more than the three people and fetus the state lab had initially identified.

He speculated that some of the fragments were from a child from the ages of 5 to 14, which led to speculation about Michaela, who was 9 when she disappeared.

The FBI has taken over any further searches in Linden and is trying to figure out what it's dealing with at a second well.

At a depth of 75 feet, boring equipment used Tuesday was still pulling up fill soil, and a camera dropped down also showed no debris, FBI spokeswoman Gina Swankie said in a news release.

Today, the team is expected to bring in more equipment in an effort to determine the actual bottom of the well and find the hardpan bottom, she said. This week's work marks a second phase in the search for murder victims.

One year ago, Herzog hanged himself, and investigators next recovered the remains of three women and a fetus in a well nearby based on information provided by Shermantine, who finally revealed the information after more than a decade on death row.

The FBI briefly took Shermantine off death row in August to point to more burial locations. Investigators said they believe they will find the remains of one or more victims at the current dig site on Flood Road.